$79 Endless Mini PC Aims To Enable Computing For The Rest Of The Word

We cover a lot of high end gear, everything from multi-core processors with boatloads of cache to graphics cards that can run circles around Crysis. But what about the other end of the spectrum? A company called Endless Computers points out that in the developing world, nearly 5 billion people don't have access to a PC. Endless aims to change that with a low cost system that brings the Internet to people who otherwise wouldn't have access to either.

Meet the Endless Mini, a $79 sphere-shaped PC. It's built around an ARM Cortex-A5 processor running at 1.5GHz with a Mali-450 GPU. It also has 1GB of RAM and 24GB of solid state storage. Connectivity options consist of three USB 2.0 ports (two on the rear, one of the front), a 3.5m audio port, GbE port, and HDMI and composite video outputs.

Users can plug Endless into a monitor or any standard television. They'll also need to add a cheap keyboard and mouse, and then they're good to go. The system runs a custom version of Linux and is preloaded with a plethora of content, the idea being to give users as much offline information and tools as possible since Internet access isn't always easy (or affordable) to come by.

"Endless comes with a browser for when you have internet. Each computer is preloaded with a full encyclopedia, educational lectures, recipes, health information, and over 100 other apps, making it the perfect solution where Internet is expensive, slow, or unavailable," Endless explains.

There's also a $99 model that adds 802.11n Wi-Fi and Bluetooth 4.0, plus a pair of more powerful models simply called Endless, one that runs $189 (32GB eMMC and SD storage) and the other $229 (500GB HDD). Both models features an Intel Celeron N2807 dual-core processor, 2GB of RAM, 32GB of eMMC and SD storage, two USB 2.0 ports, a single USB 3.0 port, GbE LAN, 3.5mm audio jack, 802.11n Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 4.0, and an integrated speaker.

We met up with the people behind Endless Computers at CES and were impressed with how passionate they are about their mission. The company's founder, Matt Dalio, is a genuine person who's been looking to make a difference since an early age. At just 16 years old, he founded China Care, "making possible surgeries, foster placements, and financial aid for thousands of orphans," according to his bio.

Endless Computers successfully finished a Kickstarter run earlier this year in which it raised $176,538 from over a 1,000 backers, besting its goal of a cool one hundred grand. Now it's looking to spread the world as it gets ready to bring computing and information normally reserved for the Internet to emerging markets and third world countries.